The embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to book production and, more particularly, to a book production system and an associated method that allow a book block and flexible book cover for that book block to be printed in the same print job prior to binding.
Typically, for flexible books (e.g., paperback books), the flexible book cover is designed to wrap around three sides of an associated book block and, particularly, to cover the first page, the spine and the last page of the book block. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a book block refers to the stack of print media sheets, which are printed with text and/or images and which make up the pages of the book. During production, flexible book covers and book blocks are printed as discrete print jobs and then bound together by a bookbinder. Specifically, flexible book covers are pre-printed and loaded into a cover tray in the bookbinder. The pages of the book are then printed, fed into the bookbinder, stacked, and tamped to form a book block. Next, one of the pre-printed book covers is bound to the book block using, for example, a perfect bound book binding process or a tape book binding process. That is, in the bookbinder, adhesive material (e.g., glue or tape) is applied to the spine portion of the book block and/or to the corresponding center portion of a flexible book cover, the book cover is wrapped around the book block, and pressure and/or heat are applied to secure the book cover to the book block. Unfortunately, using pre-printed flexible book covers can result in miscount and/or mismatch problems. For example, the wrong number of flexible book covers can be pre-printed and/or the wrong pre-printed flexible book covers can be bound to the book blocks.